to create the premise for developing relevant personal working habits and character-building;

to liberate them from harmful inhibitions, and stimulate their affection for acting and arts in general.

The curriculum is based on a method of approach useful for all aspects of acting (i.e. stage, television, film and auditions). It is conducted in a combination of lecture, exercises and assignments for class presentation, and is organized in three consecutive courses. Throughout the curriculum an extensive training program in developing the actor’s external toolkit (body, voice and speech) will be implemented.

Level 1 – Building the Foundation

(8 weeks, once a week)

This course is designed to demystify the basics of acting and establish simple and accessible goals in order to stimulate participants to get over their initial anxiety, fallacious ideas, or misconceptions about the craft. The group is introduced to the major elements that constitute human behavior.

Through discussions and exercises these components are being carefully scrutinized and recreated on stage. During the process students get familiarized with the basic terminology of the acting profession, maintaining an organic, truthful presence in fulfilling their creative tasks. The pursuit of this objective naturally leads to achieving another fundamental goal at this stage: building “the actor’s character,” which is a strong combination of personal will, self-discipline, industriousness, responsibility, and integrity.

Level 2 – Elevating Acting to a Form of Art

(8 weeks, once a week)

The course is devoted to teaching the students how to relate to issues, problems and goals of imaginary people. Bycultivating improvisational skills the psycho-physical training focuses on expanding the imagination and challenging the depth and strength of the connection to the invented personality.

The group is introduced to a system of approaches in recreating the imaginary life of the character in its biography, motivation, living environment, and relationships, with a special emphasis on his/her objective and action. The scope of practical work gradually evolves from exercises on a given subject to work on short written texts. Students are also being brought into the aesthetics of the actor’s performance – either on stage or in front of the camera.

Level 3 – Turning Acting Into Authorship

(8 weeks, once a week)

The tracks to this peak are strictly individual. In a collective environment each student is carefully guided to find their personal incentives to an unlimited range of characters from the highly condensed universe of written drama. On the basis of analysis and improvisation tasks he/she is being trained to define and emotionally connect to the super-objective of the chosen personality.

Upon communication with others within or out of the text the student explores (and experiments on) the boundaries of his/her character’s fears, passions and relations to the outer world. The goal is to reach a degree in the personal conduct of the character’s action that not only creates a truthful, unique and specific performance, but inspires the actor to open up their subconscious on behalf of the character.

A Little More on Our Approach

Modern acting, more than ever, is rooted in the natural laws of our behavior.

Different acting styles have their appeal for a certain amount of time, in front of a certain type of audience, in a certain cultural situation. And their impact could be really impressive. But genuine acting which makes you wonder where the actor “ends” and where the character “starts” has always dominated the world of theatre and cinema.

The technology of the 21st century is challenging the very know-how of visual arts. We are witnessing a scientific revolution, which in its culmination will redefine many of the established patterns of movie-making. Yet great directors more than ever turn their attention to the type of acting which will make their wildest visions look authentic and true.

The way people perceive performing arts is also changing. The stream of information everybody has access to has made their perception keen enough to easily distinguish artistic pretense from artistic sincerity. Ideas still matter (as they always have) but nowadays they have zero credibility unless their presentation is deep and honest.

More than a hundred years ago a great artist foresaw what the next century would be like for the performing arts. He didn’t cater to the fashions of the day; his research was devoted to serving eternity. This is how he revealed that human nature is being driven by laws equally valid and powerful as the laws of gravity or electricity. Like a diligent miner he followed “the vein of gold” and kept unearthing discovery after discovery.

How does today’s world know that he was correct? His revelations are not isolated from each other; they do not exist for themselves. They are interrelated elements, and each one serves as a proof for the validity of the rest. Today, a century later, all credible theories on acting acknowledge the immense impact of this system, and the genius of its creator. His name was Konstantin Stanislavski.

Modern-day Stanislavski Acting is a class for beginners and working actors who view their path to success as passing through the very core of human nature. Analyzing the structure of any substance is the only way to modify it according to the needs of its users and the will of its creators. In our class we will get down to the very molecules of human action so that the products we create can be unimpeded, unspoiled, true reflections of our creative individualities. We will learn that acting, aside from being an art, is also a science. Studying it turns into genuine actors even those who have doubted their own talent. We will discover the enormously strong bond between our conscious actions and subconscious drives which will open the gate to achieving the ultimate goal of every actor: an inspired and spontaneous behavior on behalf of the character.

Modern-day Stanislavski Acting is a creative continuation of the most powerful approach to acting. The grandeur of it lies in the fact that its source is nature itself. Stanislavski’s followers – including the founder of this class – are not pupils who have to cram somebody else’s visions on their trade. We are authors – the only possible substitute for the word artists. People study throughout their lives, but only the diligent learn. The most cherished knowledge they gain is how to preserve and stimulate the originality of their reflections, and their artistry. Is it possible to recreate the human character without being one of them?